The Terrace History

An early photograph of The Terrace taken from the railway station approach.

Windermere Village didn't exist (apart from 2 houses) before the Kendal-Windermere Railway rolled into town in 1846.

The poet William Wordsworth was strongly opposed to the development of the railway and everything it bought with it. His reactions to the technological and "picturesque" incursions of man on his beloved, wild landscape most famously include the following sonnet:

Is then no nook of English ground secure

From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown

In youth, and 'mid the busy world kept pure

As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown,

Must perish;—how can they this blight endure?

And must he too the ruthless change bemoan

Who scorns a false utilitarian lure

'Mid his paternal fields at random thrown?

Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orresthead

Given to the pausing traveller's rapturous glance:

Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance

Of nature; and, if human hearts be dead,

Speak, passing winds; ye torrents, with your strong

And constant voice, protest against the wrong.

Following the completion of the railway the Windermere Hotel was built at a cost of £1,327.7s, 6.5d. The builder was the renowned local firm Pattinsons. It is said that during the final stage of the build, Abraham Pattinson was paid £200 in cash (a huge amount at the time). He was given the money on site one Saturday morning. He placed it in his jacket pocket, which was hanging on scaffolding. The day was warm and Abraham went home without his jacket. The jacket and cash were hanging on the scaffolding untouched on the Monday morning when he returned. Theft was almost non-existant in this part of the country at that time. The hotel was opened on May 12th 1847.

A few years after the hotel's completion, December 18th 1854, the construction of 5 new houses for the owners of The Kendal-Windermere Railway Company was started just above the final stop of their beloved railway. The houses were reputedly designed by Augustus (AWN) Pugin and again built by Pattinsons. The houses were finished 18 months later on June 10th 1856.

Now known as The Terrace, the houses were some of the first private homes in the village.

At one time the gardens were terraced down to the railway station (as in the photograph above), which is where the name The Terrace originally came from.

There is a hierarchy to the houses, which is said to relate to the position of the executive that owned each house.

Pugin is better known for designing the Palace of Westminster - the fireplaces in Alice Howe and Boston House are said to be replicas of a fireplace within the Palace.

One of the original owners of The Terrace was one anoriginal member of the Board (council) of Bowness. He was referred to in documentation as James Fisher, gentleman of The Terrace.

It is also thought that Arthur Ransom - perhaps most famous as the author of Swallows and Amazons - stayed at The Terrace in the late 1800s. He was schooled in Windermere and his aunt reputedly lived in one of the houses on The Terrace.